1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a film cutter method and apparatus in which a cutting blade extends from the interior of a housing, the housing having a sled shaped runner and an adjustable clearance to an upper surface of a rail in which the housing is slidably moved, thereby effectively and expeditiously cutting film, such as food service wrap, even if the film is bunched or doubled over without injury to a user of the apparatus.
2. Related Art
The present invention relates to an improved film cutter for plastic wrap. Conventional plastic wrap has many uses for covering foods before putting them in a refrigerator, microwave or other storage means. Typically, conventional thin plastic wrap is rolled on a rod and dispensed by pulling outward a section thereof for use, the extended plastic wrap is then cut off by a blade or zig-zag cutting device attached along the edge of a box in which the roll of wrap is housed. The problem with these devices is that the thin plastic wrap is easily distorted by sticking to itself due to static electricity. Also, a user can cut themselves on the exposed blade.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,957,023 describes a wrap dispenser with an automatic cutting device. A cutting device is fixed on a mount and is able to be slidably moved along a fixed track by way of a transmission mechanism powered by a motor that is in turn actuated by a number of batteries. This patent has the drawback of being cumbersome and expensive to manufacture.
Other conventional attempts have included cutting apparatus having a plurality of guide wheels to travel in a channel beneath a cutting surface. U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,961 describes a film cutting apparatus in which a plurality of guide wheels are supported in a channel for guiding a cutting device during travel. A rotatable cutting wheel is disposed within a semi-circular housing. A top surface of a cutting plane is formed of a urethane tape to adhere the film to the surface during cutting. The above-described film cutter has the limitation that the guide wheels and rotating cutting wheel use complex mechanical interaction resulting in high manufacturing costs. This cutter also has the drawback that the urethane tape loses the ability with use to immobilize the film because of loss of the adhesiveness of the tape.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,197,774 describes a travelling cutter assembly in which an elongated track has a slot for slidably receiving and returning a cutter slide therein. The track has roughened upper surface elements. A cutting element includes a housing having a smooth lower surface that extends laterally for locally immobilizing the sheet by pressing it against the roughened track surface. The use of a roughened surface for immobilizing a material has the shortening that the film can only be immobilized against the surface upon application of pressure between the cutting device and the surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,398,576 describes a cutting device having a positioning unit formed of two elongated vertical side walls interconnected to a horizontal top wall to define a sliding space between the vertical side walls and under the top wall. A cutter includes a sliding body with two vertical plates and two horizontal plates extending from the vertical plates under the horizontal top wall. A blade is mounted in a notch of the cutter. The blade extends rearwardly and downwardly from the front end surface. This patent has the disadvantage of exposure of the blade to a user and difficulty of the blade cutter bunched or misaligned film.
It is desirable to provide an improved film cutter apparatus overcoming the above-described deficiencies in which the apparatus can be used to conveniently and effectively cut film even if the film is bunched or doubled over while providing safety to the user.